The present invention relates to the art of Internet commerce. It finds particular application in conjunction with a shopping portal and business model for generating contributions to charitable, non-profit, and other affinity groups or organizations, and will be described with particular reference thereto. However, it is to be appreciated that the present invention is also amenable to other like applications.
Internet commerce, or e-commerce as it is otherwise known, relates to the buying and selling of goods and services over the Internet. The convenience of shopping over the Internet has sparked considerable interest in e-commerce on behalf of both consumers and merchants. For merchants desiring to increase sales, it would be advantageous to have high levels of Internet traffic from interested consumers. Toward this end, merchants with a presence on the Internet will often pay fees in an effort to attract consumers to their web-site. Often, these fees are advertising fees and/or referral commissions, otherwise known as “click-through fees.”
Typically, advertising fees refer to those fees paid by the merchant to another web-site owner for providing space on the latter's web-site to display the merchant's “banner ads.” The banner ads are used to advertise the merchant's website and/or goods. In addition to advertising the merchant's web-site and/or goods, the banner ads will often provide a hyper-link directing the consumer to the merchant's web-site. Another type of fee often paid by merchants is the click-through fee. The click-through fee can be likened to a commission that is paid to a web-site owner when a consumer referred to the merchant's web-site makes a purchase. The consumer is considered referred to the merchant's web-site when they hyper-link or are otherwise directed there from or through a web-site owner's web-page, typically, by an object or link on the web-site owner's web-page. For example, a “click-through fee” referral system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,141 to Bezos, et al., incorporated herein by reference.
Often, consumers are members or supporters of non-profit organizations, fraternal organizations, charities, unions, school alumni, associations, or other like affinity groups. Many of these affinity groups rely on and/or appreciate donations, gifts, or other financial support to carry out their mission. Moreover, depending on the affinity group, donations made thereto may be tax deductible with respect to the donor. Accordingly, it would be advantageous if consumers could financially support their desired affinity group or groups while maintaining a record thereof so that, e.g., any available tax deductions could be obtained, or so that the contributions could be recognized in some manner, or so that the donor may simply reflect and take pleasure in the charitable contributions he has generated, etc. Moreover, it is desirable that the consumers not be overburdened in this pursuit so that participation by the consumers is maximized and in turn financial support for the affinity groups is maximized. Therefore, the foregoing goal is best achieved when the consumers'participation is made relatively easy such as when the consumers'participation amounts to doing that which they would already do anyway, e.g., by shopping for needed or desired goods or services on the Internet.
Accordingly, the present invention contemplates a new and improved affinity shopping portal which achieves the above-referenced goals and others.